White House declines to comment on Granholm remark on possible crude oil export

[October 07, 2021]    WASHINGTON (Reuters) - White House press spokesperson Jen Psaki declined to comment on U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm's remarks on Wednesday that a ban on U.S. crude exports is a possible tool to calm oil prices.

U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm testifies at a Senate Energy & Natural Resources Committee hearing on the Energy Department's budget request on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., June 15, 2021. REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein/Files

"I would defer to the energy secretary, but I don't have anything new to report on that from internally in the White House," Psaki told reporters.

Earlier in the day, Granholm did not rule out a ban on crude oil exports, which was lifted in 2015. "That’s a tool that we have not used, but it is a tool as well," Granholm told a Financial Times conference. She also said that tapping the Strategic Petroleum Reserve is under consideration.

(Reporting by Steve Holland and Timothy Gardner; Editing by Leslie Adler)

[© 2021 Thomson Reuters. All rights reserved.]

Copyright 2021 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.  Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content.